In this episode of In Development, our hosts chat with Don Iveson, a former city councillor, mayor and current housing & sustainability expert.  They discuss the historical context of Edmonton's infill policy environment, challenges we continue to face and how a better future will require collaboration between all orders of government. Don's deep knowledge of municipal politics and breadth of experience make for an informative, fascinating listen.

Biography:

Don Iveson served four terms at Edmonton City Hall, initially as Councillor representing the southwest corner of the City. Prior to elected office, he worked in University campus media and then post-secondary education policy. Don served as Edmonton’s 35th Mayor from 2013 to 2021 with a guiding leadership principle to make things better for the next generation. This long-term view is now embedded in through Edmonton’s City Plan and Energy Transition Strategy. After his time on Council, Don Iveson founded Civic Good, a public policy advisory practice working on climate resilience, housing affordability, and attentive governance with clients ranging from startups to governments. His primary engagement is with Co-operators as Executive Advisor with the Resilience Acceleration Lab. Don continues to live in Edmonton, though he works with organizations across Canada, through his work as Chairperson of the Canada Housing and Mortgage Corporation. He writes occasionally about his work and about Canadian public policy over on the Civic Good Substack.

In this episode, Eleanor Mohammed and Peter Spearey join our host Stephen to discuss the Edmonton Design Awards, great examples of urban design and its importance to building great public spaces. Learn about the jury process, philosophy and goals of Edmonton Design Week and how our guests see it evolving over time. 

Biographies: 
Peter Spearey
Peter is an award-winning landscape architect and urban designer with over twenty-five years experience exploring how thoughtful design can shape engaging, authentic and sustainable places. Peter’s practice merges placemaking and sustainable urbanism through a creative and collaborative approach to design.

Peter has worked in both the private and public sector on a wide range of community planning, landscape architecture, urban design and environmental graphic design assignments across Western and Northern Canada. Since 2016, Peter has served as Lead Urban Designer for the City of Edmonton. In this role, Peter has been responsible for delivering the City’s urban design program, including the development of urban design policy and strategy, providing reviews of development applications and City infrastructure projects, overseeing the Edmonton Design Committee, and planning and hosting the biennial Edmonton Urban Design Awards. 
At the end of November, Peter will be leaving the City of Edmonton to take on the position of Chief Urban Designer for the City of Calgary.

Eleanor Mohammed

Eleanor Mohammed, RPP, FCIP, EP, MTCP, is a globally recognized Urban Planner with over two
decades of leadership in the public, private, and non-profit sectors. A Partner at DIALOG, she
advances transformative solutions in urban governance and land use planning. Currently the
Chair of the UN-Habitat Professionals Forum and a Board Director at Canada’s National Capital
Commission, she drives local and global initiatives in sustainable city-building and climate
resilience. A former President of the Commonwealth Association of Planners and the Canadian
Institute of Planners, she has spearheaded diverse projects from sustainable development
advocacy to professional capacity building and multilateral international engagement. She was
recognized on the Royal Town Planning Institute’s (U.K.) International Women of Influence list
and is a passionate professional who is a sought-after keynote at international events. Eleanor
holds a Master of Arts with Distinction in Town and Country Planning from the University of the
West of England (U.K.) and an Honours Bachelor

Register for the IDEA Symposium:
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/1571928493439?aff=oddtdtcreator

Register for the Celebration of Planning:
https://www.albertaplanners.com/civicrm/event/info?id=750&reset=1

In this episode, our hosts chat with Neal LaMontagne, professional planner & academic about his perspectives on planning and pedagogy. Learn about the differences between various Canadian planning programs, the development of a planning school in Edmonton and what skills Neal sees as key to planning excellence in the future.

Neal's Biography:

Neal LaMontagne is a practicing city planner with a decade and a half of experience in the public and private sectors in California and B.C. Previously the Manager of Long Range and Community Planning for the City of North Vancouver, he seeks to shape the urban environment in a just, sustainable and collaborative manner through policy, regulation and community dialogue.

Past experience includes work as a senior planner for the City of Vancouver on civic sustainability, transportation and housing issues, as a consultant on comprehensive city and local area plans, zoning codes, design guidelines, and urban design strategies in the U.S. and Canada, and as an adjunct professor at the NewSchool of Architecture and Design, San Diego State University and the University of California San Diego.

Neal received his master's in urban planning from McGill University and is currently completing a PhD in urban planning at the University of California Los Angeles. His academic interests include urban design policy and regulatory frameworks, the political economy of the built environment, complexity and adaptive urbanism, urban design history and planning practice.

With Stephen on vacation, Allison hosts this week's episode with IDEA's Executive Director Sean. The hosts chat with IDEA board member Jay Sanderson of Backroads Reclamation about the hidden goldmine of usable wood in structures poised for demolition. We learn about the complexity of building a cost-effective supply chain and removing friction from more sustainable construction practices. 

Jay's Biography: 

Jay Sanderson is the founder of Backroads Reclamation and a leader in developing circular infrastructure for Canada’s built environment. With over 20 years of experience in heavy transport, logistics, and materials handling—Jay brings a systems-driven, operations-first lens to solving complex waste and recovery challenges.

In 2020, as COVID slowed industrial projects and shifted priorities across the country, Jay turned to hands-on work to stay active—dismantling a family barn that was slated to be burned.What began as a practical project quickly became a professional turning point, as he realized Canada is demolishing thousands of buildings each year—filled with recoverable old-growth lumber and materials—without any scalable system to preserve and re-use them.

Jay founded Backroads to change that. His company is developing the missing business infrastructure to make reclaimed lumber viable at scale: from grading standards and certified deconstruction crews to processing systems and market-aligned supply chains. His goal is to make reuse predictable, profitable, and integrated into the way cities grow.

In this episode, Jacob Dawang of Grow Together YEG chats with our hosts about how the data of infill development tells a different story than one might expect about Edmonton's recent growth. Learn about how restrictive zoning practices have shaped cities in North America and some ideas of how we can create a better path forward. 

Biography: 

Jacob Dawang is a data scientist at Capital One Canada, where he leads the acquisitions risk model team. He has previously built open-source and inner-source Python libraries to support data scientists and has research experience at Statistics Canada. Originally from Montreal, Jacob has lived in several Canadian cities through his studies at the University of Waterloo, where he earned a Bachelor of Mathematics in statistics with a minor in economic theory. Now based in Edmonton, he is an active housing advocate with Grow Together Edmonton and previously with More Neighbours Toronto. Outside of work, Jacob enjoys rock climbing, cycling, and baking bread.

In this episode of In Development, our hosts chat with Councillor Sarah Hamilton who reflects on her two terms in Council, shares insights about regulatory change management and explores what other cities can teach us about Edmonton. 

Councillor Hamilton's Biography: 

Sarah Hamilton is proud to be City Councillor for Edmonton’s Ward sipiwiyiniwak. She currently sits as the City of Edmonton representative on the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Board of Directors, and serves on both the Community & Public Safety and City Manager & City Auditor Performance Evaluation committees. She is in her second term on Edmonton City Council, having served as the representative for Ward 5 from 2017-2021.

Sarah grew up in west Edmonton and graduated from the University of Alberta. She went on to receive a Master of Arts Degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago before returning home to Edmonton. Prior to becoming a City Councillor, Sarah worked as an adjunct professor of media and communications, a freelance journalist, and the owner and operator of a communications and public relations firm working with several non-profit businesses throughout Edmonton. She has also held various public service-oriented roles in provincial and municipal government. Sarah spent much of her life active in her community through volunteer work. Prior to her election, she volunteered with the World Partnership Walk, the Lessard Community League and Latitude 53. 

In her downtime, Sarah enjoys spending her time with family and friends, including her partner Nick and son August.  She is an avid consumer of local arts and culture and remains a die-hard Chicago Cubs fan. She enjoys hiking, cycling and paddling through Edmonton’s River Valley and discovering the many hidden corners of the city.

Sarah is passionate about Edmonton and its potential to grow, thrive, and influence. She considers Edmonton one of the most forward-thinking cities in Canada — with some of the best prospects for continued and sustainable growth — and continues to make that known.

In this episode, our hosts chat with Mauricio Ochoa; Vice President of IDEA and CEO of FCX Developments. Mauricio shares a behind the scenes look into his industry beginnings and explains why he is so passionate about infill. You'll learn about how he connects with neighbours and manages relationships during the development process and hear insights about the importance of genuinely caring for your community. 

As the President of FCX Developments, Mauricio's passion and ideas are deeply rooted in his work. His role allows him to engage directly with the community and stay connected with their evolving needs and aspirations. FCX Developments is actively building affordable missing middle housing in mature neighborhoods of Edmonton, Alberta. Mauricio firmly believes that addressing the housing needs of diverse individuals and families is crucial for creating inclusive and vibrant communities. By focusing on affordable missing middle housing, he ensures that individuals from various income levels have access to quality homes within established neighbourhoods.

In this episode of In Development, we explore how public and active transportation interact with infill development (and vice versa!) Our guests Daniel Witte and Shannon Lohner bring important insights from their work with Edmonton Transit Riders and Paths for People, respectively. Get ready to learn about everything from how transportation modalities are financed in Edmonton to how they're implemented in policy in this information-packed episode. 

Shannon Lohner is the former Chair of Paths for People, a local non-profit focused on making Edmonton a safer place to walk, roll, and cycle. Paths for People focuses on community engagement and programming, and advocating to Edmonton's municipal government for improvements to local active transportation infrastructure. Shannon currently works at the University of Alberta, where she will also begin her studies as an MSc in Urban and Regional Planning in Fall 2025. 

Daniel Witte has been the Chair of Edmonton Transit Riders since the organization’s inception in May 2024. Having recently completed a degree in Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Alberta, he is interested in how public transportation can be used as a city building tool and make Edmonton a more equitable and vibrant place. In his time with Edmonton Transit Riders the organization has been involved in a push to improve the Canadian Public Transit Fund, maintain funding for Alberta’s low income transit passes, and most recently a campaign to improve transit priority measures on 101st Street. Daniel loves being out in his community, volunteering, and meeting all the people invested in making Edmonton a more livable and friendly city.

In this episode, our hosts chat with Lisa Drury from the City of Edmonton about the new Priority Growth Area (PGA) rezoning project. We dive into how the project came about, the selection process for areas being rezoned and how the public was engaged during its development. This episode provides a great opportunity to learn the nuances of the proposal before it goes to public hearing on May 20th, 2025. 

More information & the ability to leave comments or request a chat with a planner can be found on the City’s website here: 

edmonton.ca/PriorityGrowthAreaRezoning

Lisa Drury is a Senior Planner at the City of Edmonton with over ten years of municipal experience. After graduating with a Master of Science in Planning at the University of Toronto, Lisa worked in several municipalities in Alberta and Ontario. She began her career working in long range policy planning and transitioned to working in current planning prior to coming to the City of Edmonton. She enjoys exploring the City, playing sports, learning new skills and getting involved in her community.

In this episode, we reconnect with Alkarim Devani to talk about how Edmonton and Calgary are faring when it comes to pushing for a better policy and regulatory environment with regard to infill development. We learn more about mddl, an expert organization in middle housing whose mission is to build capacity from top to bottom for "missing middle" and reduce barriers to delivering this kind of development. We glean insights from Alkarim on how to tell the positive story of infill and work across communities to push for better.

Alkarim Devani is co-founder of RNDSQR, where his passion for design and innovation drives his vision of redefining what it means to be a developer. Alkarim’s work building RNDSQR has garnered national and international recognition and is a frequent guest lecturer at The University of California, Berkeley, and The University of Calgary. In addition, Alkarim is a dedicated and active member of the community and development industry. He regularly contributes his time to numerous volunteer organizations as well as several industry-led boards and communities including D.Talks and Calgary Housing Company. Alkarim’s work has gained a multitude of media attention and frequently been the recipient of The Canadian Architecture Awards, MUDA Awards, American Architecture Prize, and the BILD Awards. Alkarim transitions into the next stage of his career with mddl to use his in-depth experience with middle housing to help scale the delivery of housing across Canada.